“Yes. Yes, my lord,” Nute said hesitantly. “Uh…as you wish.”
Sidious broke the connection and the holograms faded out. A question formed in Maul’s mind. He knew that he should remain silent, that to interrupt his Master’s thoughts almost always brought harsh consequences. Unable to wait, Maul said, “Do you think the Neimoidians are capable of destroying the Jedi, Master? They are fools.”
Sidious nodded slowly. “Yes, they are fools. But even fools are sometimes lucky.”
Maul returned to his training room. He moved his hand over a sensor on a curved wall, and then the wall panel slid back to offer a sweeping view of Coruscant. The city appeared to spread out above, below, and around Maul. The sun was setting, and he watched the sky shift to crimson. As millions of gleaming windows and passing starships reflected the color of the sky, Maul thought the entire world looked as if it were bathed in blood. He thought it was beautiful.
And then he thought of the two Jedi who had arrived at the Neimoidians’ blockade at Naboo. He hoped the Neimoidians would fail to kill the Jedi. By the Force, he knew they would fail. And after all his years of training, he would be called into service to strike against the Sith’s greatest enemy.
Maul grimaced. He realized that by wishing for the Neimoidians to fail, he was also wishing for his Master’s order to fail. Maul did not like this contradiction, the conflict it presented. He did not want to be disloyal, but he couldn’t stop the feeling that gnawed within him.…
The Jedi are mine. Mine to hunt. Mine to destroy.
The feeling wasn’t purely selfish. Maul wanted his Master to see that he was a worthy apprentice. As far as Maul was concerned, all his previous tests had been trivial. To fight the Jedi would be his first true test. The ultimate test.
From Maul’s vantage point in Sidious’s lair, the Jedi Temple was not visible. He closed his eyes and visualized the Temple in his mind and saw a smoking ruin. The bodies of fallen Jedi Knights and their small Padawans littered the stairwells and hallways. He saw himself standing in the rubble, surrounded by Jedi corpses. He envisioned his Master arriving to meet him at the scene.
Here is what I have done for you, Master.
I am pleased, Lord Maul.
Maul opened his eyes. His vision had been so realistic he could smell the blend of rising smoke and spilled blood. He had no doubt that he had seen something more than a dream. He knew he had glimpsed the future.
It wasn’t long before Sidious once again summoned Maul to his strategy room. When Maul arrived, he found his Master wearing a quilted blue cloak with Naboo-style bloused sleeves. Sidious shrugged out of the cloak and donned his dark hooded robe.
With his face lost in shadows beneath the hood, he glanced at Maul as he gestured to the dark alcove a short distance behind the single seat at the communications console. “Stand over there,” Sidious said. “Remain in the background. I may need you. Who knows what those Neimoidian slugs have managed to bungle this time?”
Sidious seated himself in front of the holoprojector and initiated a transmission to Nute Gunray’s battleship. Maul watched from the dark alcove as a hologram of Nute and his diplomatic attaché Rune Haako materialized in the air before Sidious.
Eyeing the two Neimoidians, Sidious said, “What is your report of the invasion?”
“We control all the cities in the North,” Nute replied, “and are searching for any other settlements.”
“And Queen Amidala, has she signed the treaty?”
“She has disappeared, my lord,” Nute said ruefully. “One Naboo cruiser got past the blockade.”
Sidious snarled. “I want that treaty signed.”
“My lord, it’s impossible to locate the ship. It’s out of our range.”
“Not for a Sith,” Sidious said. With a discreet motion of his hand that only Maul could see, Sidious gestured for Maul to approach. Maul stepped forward so he stood just behind his Master. He braced his arms across his chest and stared down at the Neimoidians’ holograms.
Sidious continued, “This is my apprentice, Darth Maul. He will find your lost ship.”
Maul saw the look of surprise and dismay on the faces of both Nute and Rune Haako as they shifted their gazes from Sidious to him. He thought, Yes, you fools. There are two of us.
Sidious broke the connection with the Neimoidians. Turning to face Maul, he said, “Those incompetents have performed worse than my lowest expectations. Queen Amidala must sign that treaty.” He clenched his teeth. “The Jedi are behind this, of course. They are becoming a nuisance and must be eliminated. Find them.”
Maul bowed. “I will find them, Master. I will not fail.”
Sio Bibble, the governor of Naboo and chair of the Naboo Royal Advisory Council, was among the many citizens captured by the Neimoidians during the invasion of Naboo. Maul scavenged holographic datatapes to replicate Sio Bibble’s likeness and voice and created a fragmented message from the white-haired, bearded governor. Reviewing the message, Maul watched Bibble’s simulated likeness say urgently, “…cut off all food supplies until you return. The death toll is catastrophic. We must bow to their wishes. You must contact me.”
Maul’s plan was to transmit the message and establish a connection trace to pinpoint the location of Queen Amidala’s starship. He routed the transmission so it would appear to originate from the Royal Palace on Naboo. And then he waited.
It did not take long for Maul to intercept a response, a brief encrypted message that said the Queen was safe and would soon return to Naboo. The response came from a small sand planet in the Arkanis sector, in the Outer Rim Territories. The planet’s name was Tatooine.
Maul found Darth Sidious standing on a balcony that curved around the outside of their secret lair on Coruscant. Sidious was apparently oblivious to the airships that whizzed past the balcony as he gazed out over the skyscrapers that illuminated the night. As Maul approached, he heard his Master mutter…
“Far above, far above,
We don’t know where we’ll fall.
Far above, far above,
What once was great is rendered small.”
Sidious glanced at Maul. Maul recalled the verse from his childhood and wondered why his Master had recited it, but he did not ask.
Sidious began walking on the balcony and Maul fell into step alongside him. Maul said, “A connection trace suggests the Queen is on Tatooine. She might be hiding there while she plans to retake her planet.”
Sidious shook his head. “She is not so brave. She still trusts the power of the Senate. No, that is not why they landed on Tatooine. And the reason is not your concern. Just find them.”
“Tatooine is sparsely populated,” Maul said. “If the trace was correct, I will find them quickly, Master.”
“Move against the Jedi first. You will then have no difficulty taking the Queen to Naboo to sign the treaty.”
Sidious came to a stop at the edge of the balcony. Maul stopped beside him and said, “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.”
“You have been well trained, my apprentice. They will be no match for you.”
Leaving his Master on the balcony, Maul proceeded to the hangar that housed his personal starship, the Sith Infiltrator named Scimitar. Sidious had given him the vessel, which was equipped with a powerful hyperdrive, weapons, and a rare cloaking device that rendered the ship completely invisible. Maul had used the ship on numerous missions on behalf of his Master, including recent attacks on the interstellar criminal organization Black Sun and Bartokk assassins on the planet Ralltiir.
After boarding the ship, he entered Tatooine’s coordinates into the starship’s navicomputer to plot his course through hyperspace, a course that would have him leave Coruscant via the Corellian Run and then shift to the Triellus Trade Route to reach Tatooine’s binary star system in the Arkanis sector. Minutes later, seated behind the Scimitar’s controls, he was rising away from Coruscant when he realized his entire body was tingling with ex
citement.
He could hardly wait to kill Jedi.
The Scimitar dropped out of hyperspace. Maul glanced through a shielded viewport to see the twin suns of the Tatoo system, then spotted a third point of light that was so bright it could have easily been mistaken for a small star. Maul checked the nav console and confirmed the third body was Tatooine.
Although Maul did not expect to spend much time on the sand planet, he had briefed himself about what he would find there. The Republic had no functional presence on Tatooine, which was essentially run by the Hutts, large sluglike beings whose criminal enterprises spanned the galaxy. Because water on Tatooine was so scarce, most colonists were moisture farmers. Indigenous natives included bright-eyed Jawas, hooded scavengers who drove enormous sandcrawlers through the desert in search of scrap metal and abandoned vehicles. There were also nomadic masked savages called the Tusken Raiders, known to moisture farmers as Sand People, who rode large creatures called banthas. From what Maul had gathered about the Sand People, he doubted that Queen Amidala and the Jedi would seek refuge with them. Everyone avoided Sand People.
A light flashed on the comm console. The Scimitar had picked up a distress signal from a nearby ship. Maul sighted the ship on his viewscreen, saw it was a small space cruiser that had stalled in a shipping lane. He ignored the distress signal, but as he passed by the ship, the signal grew louder, and then a voice cried from the comm, “Help us! Please, help us!”
Maul saw a large bulk freighter tumble out of hyperspace, and he assumed the freighter had arrived to assist the stalled ship. But then the stalled ship’s engines fired and it raced after the Scimitar while the freighter came up fast on Maul’s other side. Through his viewport, Maul saw panels slide back on the freighter’s hull to reveal proton-torpedo launchers.
Pirates. Maul brought his fist down on the edge of his console. He felt foolish and furious for letting down his guard, for letting his ship be sighted, for leaving himself open to an attack. He did not want any witnesses to his arrival on Tatooine. His mission was too important. But he knew that the pirates had never seen a ship like his before, that they were fully intent on seizing it. He dared not activate the Scimitar’s cloaking device, because that would only draw more attention to the ship’s existence. The pirates would love to get their hands on an exotic cloak, and if they couldn’t, they would doubtlessly talk about the ship, and their talk might reach the Jedi on Tatooine. All these thoughts raced through his head in just a few seconds.
Maul knew he would have to kill the pirates. Every one of them.
He increased energy to the Scimitar’s deflector shields as he angled away from the other ships, but they veered along with him and cut him off, just as he had expected. Then the space cruiser opened fire and the Scimitar was rocked by the blast, a warning shot. He responded by cutting power, letting his deflector shields fall. The Scimitar came to a dead stop in space.
Anticipating that the pirates would board the Scimitar, he went to the back of his ship and climbed into a cramped escape pod. As the pod’s hatch sealed with a hiss, he consulted a monitor to watch the bulk freighter draw closer. An armored docking tube extended from the freighter.
Maul slid the pod’s release mechanism as he activated its engine, keeping it set on low power. The pod drifted a short distance away from the Scimitar’s hull, and he maneuvered so the Scimitar concealed his position from the approaching freighter. He was not about to let anyone claim his ship. When he was certain the pirates had boarded the Scimitar, he guided the pod straight for the bulk freighter.
The freighter was an unremarkable model, essentially an enormous box with a hyperdrive. Maul saw the hull was covered with grime and space dust as well as scorched by cannon fire. The freighter’s docking bay was open, apparently in preparation to receive the Scimitar.
Maul guided his small pod into the freighter’s docking bay, which was large enough to contain both the Scimitar and the pirate’s cruiser. Illuminated by bright lamps, the docking bay was cluttered with debris and piles of rotting food. As he looked for a clear spot to land, he spotted two pirates. They were Togorians, tall beings covered with matted fur, their powerful arms ending in incredibly sharp claws. The Togorians were using their claws to tear open large metal crates, and Maul assumed the crates had been seized from some previous victim. Togorians were notoriously greedy as well as murderous.
Both Togorians glanced at the escape pod as it landed neatly in the cluttered docking bay, then returned their attention to opening the crates. Maul knew that they assumed a fellow pirate had landed the pod.
Maul opened the pod’s hatch, leaped out, activated his lightsaber, and charged the two Togorians. One pirate unsheathed a vibroblade while the other snared a vibro-axe. Maul immediately evaluated that the one with the vibroblade favored his left side, and that the other pirate was clumsy. They meant nothing more to him than any other targets.
Maul flipped through the air and his blade swept through the right side of the first pirate. The arm holding the vibroblade fell upon the deck with a sickening thud, and then the stunned Togorian collapsed beside it. Maul drove his lightsaber through the fallen pirate’s chest but did not pause to watch the Togorian’s body jerk and die. He was already racing toward the second pirate, who was bigger than the first.
But instead of standing his ground, the Togorian bolted away from Maul and ran for a comlink station beside a nearby hatch. Not wanting the entire ship alerted to his presence, Maul summoned the power of the dark side and focused it on the pirate. The Togorian was thrown off his feet. He flew past the comlink station and smashed into the bulkhead. Maul had intended for the impact to kill the Togorian, but the pirate, still clutching his vibro-axe, staggered back from the bulkhead and roared with rage as he turned to face his attacker.
The Togorian ran for Maul. Maul spun his lightsaber and the Togorian’s wrist separated from his arm. The Togorian saw his hand and vibro-axe fall to the deck, and he howled. Maul’s blade spun again, and connected with the Togorian’s neck. The pirate’s body collapsed.
Maul’s pulse had not increased during the fight. His breathing remained steady. Deactivating his lightsaber, he stepped through a hatch and raced down a filthy corridor, littered with discarded junk, heading for the bulk freighter’s bridge.
Unlike the docking bay, the bridge was dim, primarily illuminated by sensor scopes and datascreens. Maul blinked his eyes, letting his vision adjust to the darkness, then he slunk into the bridge without a sound. Overhead, large metal cages dangled from the ceiling. The cages were filled with the motionless forms of many creatures, their faces gaping in wide-eyed agony. Maul realized the creatures had been killed but their bodies preserved, their expressions frozen at the moment of their deaths. He was disappointed that the corpses didn’t include any Jedi.
Below the cages, four Togorians were staring at a console, watching a monitor that displayed another Togorian, who was standing within the Scimitar. The on-screen Togorian’s fur was elaborately braided and ornamented with glittering objects. Over the comlink, the pirate with the boarding party reported, “I’m telling you, there’s no one on board!”
One of the four Togorians who stood before the monitor wore a necklace made from assorted skulls. Maul guessed him to be the captain and knew he was correct by the way the Togorian barked, “You looked for hidden compartments?”
Sounding exasperated, the Togorian on the monitor replied, “Of course we searched for hidden compartments, we’re not fools! It’s an unmanned ship. The course was set for Tatooine. That’s why it didn’t answer the distress signal. Have you ever seen a ship like this? I haven’t!”
The captain appeared to be weighing his options, then growled, “All right, idiot. Bring both ships into the loading dock. The bay is still open. If you do find any passengers, kill them.”
The captain broke the connection and the monitor went dark. One of the other pirates growled, “Hela-Tan is a fool. They could be in hiding.”
“Then
we’ll find them,” the second pirate said.
“Or they could have escaped,” added the third.
“Shut your flapping mouth,” snorted the Togorian captain. “What’s the difference? We have the ship.” He turned away from the others.
Maul moved fast. He activated his lightsaber and cut the nearest Togorian in half. The Togorian did not cry out, but the noise of his collapsing body caused his fellow pirates to turn. The captain faced Maul, baring his fangs. Drawing two vibro-axes from his belt, the captain roared, “Prepare to die, scum!”
Maul wondered why so many opponents felt compelled to announce their intentions with threats and taunts. Deciding to save the captain for last, he flipped across the bridge, kicked the second pirate in the throat, and then drove his lightsaber through the pirate’s chest. The second pirate fell.
The third pirate whipped out a vibroblade. Maul charged him. As Maul’s lightsaber cleaved through his target, he sensed that the captain was taking aim at his back. Leaping from the third pirate’s dead body, Maul soared backward over the captain’s head just as the captain’s vibro-axes met with a loud, energized shriek where Maul had been standing just a fraction of a second earlier. Maul grabbed hold of the bars on an overhead cage and swung himself to land behind the captain.
The clashing vibro-axes ignited, illuminating the remains of the caged wretches and casting ghastly shadows throughout the bridge. Prying his vibro-axes away from each other, the captain turned to face Maul again. Blood pounded in Maul’s ears as he spun his lightsaber, slashing the captain’s arms before delivering a killing blow.
From the comm console, a Togorian’s voice crackled, “Approaching docking bay.”
Maul stepped to the console. He did not activate the visual monitor as he lowered his face over the comm and said, “Proceed to the bridge.” Then Maul turned his attention to the freighter’s computer. He knew Togorian pirates always fled the scene of a crime immediately to avoid capture. And thanks to his mechanical training with Sidious, it took only a few seconds to interface the freighter’s propulsion units with the proton torpedoes. The moment the Togorians punched the ignition for their engines, the entire ship would blow up.
Lives & Adventures Page 39